Get them working young I say.

[sime42]

This is largely based on personal experience, and of those around me, but I think 14 is a good age to start part-time work. Even better if it's manual/constructive/skilled work. I guess retail or service work is better than nothing but still.

 

I had a couple of part-time jobs, in holidays and on Saturdays, from 14 - 18. I believe the work and renumeration taught me a lot. The values of hard physical work, of learning manual skills, of financial saving rather than borrowing, of diligence.... 

 

One job was making wooden jigsaws, the other was general building work, mainly masonry and landscaping. My brother worked on a local farm, I joined him at haymaking time. We, and some other local lads, also did pheasant beating for a few years during the season. (Fond memories of being given a pint of shandy with lunch at the pub, and then driven round country lanes and across fields at speed in the back of an open back Hilux! Exhilarating stuff.)

 

I'll be encouraging my son to follow a similar course.